NOVEMBER 12TH, 2014

Makes a change from a bar, but the UKIP leader says he will prop up a Miliband government. In an interview with the Staggers, Farage is very clear:

Jason Cowley “Would you go into coalition with Labour?”Nigel Farage “I’d do a deal with the Devil if it got me what I wanted.”JC If Miliband said to you, “Look, Nigel, can I have your eight to ten MPs in the coalition and we give you an in-out referendum?” would that be enough?NF That would depend when the referendum was, and the terms.JC But you’re not ruling it out.NF Of course not. There is no left and right any more. Left and right’s irrelevant.JC So there could be a Ukip-Labour-Lib Dem rainbow coalition.NF Sounds extremely unlikely.JC Or a Ukip-Labour coalition.NF Why coalition? There are other ways of doing things.JC Tell me how. Confidence and supply?NF Absolutely.JC Would that suit you better?NF To be honest, the way I look at it now, I can’t see Ukip wilfully going into formal coalition with anybody.JC But you support Labour on confidence and supply . . .NF Confidence motions and primary legislation of certain kinds, yes.JC And because there’s no left and right, you’d be comfortable supporting Labour?NF I’d be very comfortable supporting anybody that gave me an opportunity to get my country back.

A strategic error from Farage that will play into the hands of CCHQ. What was the one about voting for Farage and getting Miliband…

Farage has just show his naivety and stupidty for the whole world to see. It will cost UKIP hundreds of thousands of TOry votes. Cameron and the Tories will repeat this every day from now until 6th May 2015.

He might well have lost Reckless the Rochester by-election. With a leader like Farage who needs enemies?

and from the Spectator

Nigel Farage reinforces David Cameron’s own anti-Ukip squeeze message

Nigel Farage has talked in the past about his readiness to prop up a Labour minority government – he gave an interview to the Sunday People in October in which he said the Labour leader would just have to offer a referendum and a deal would be possible.

But the fact that he has repeated it to the New Statesman this week is hardly helpful when his party is going head to head with the Tories in Rochester. His comments to Jason Cowley help David Cameron’s squeeze message, which is that if you vote Ukip, you get Miliband.

Ukip are trying to sound as though they don’t care that this is getting so much pick-up, with a party source saying:

‘They [the Tories] are the ones who want to do a deal with Labour! Just 24 hours ago the Prime Minister asked the people of Rochester to set up a deal with Labour, the Greens and the Conservatives to defeat Ukip.

‘We don’t want to do deals with anybody, but we will do deals to get our country back. We would do a deal with the devil to get our country’s freedom back.’

Hi Eric, there are many different ways to interpret that interview. The way I see it is that there is unlikely to be a clear winner next May and some form of accommodation will be sought. The good news that no deals are being done in the run-up to the election which was the UKIP farce of 2010. That is a big step forward. Why rule out doing a deal with anyone after the election if it gets you what you want and NF made it clear that UKIP are not wilfully wanting to deal with anyone.Furthermore what effect do you think those comments are having on Conservative sitting MPs who are fretting about their jobs, not to mention Mr. Cameron?I thought it was a fair interview.